Anonymous (Septuagint) · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| My child, if you are coming forward to serve the Lord God, prepare your soul for testing.
2| Set your heart straight and endure, and do not be hasty in a time of calamity.
3| Cling to him and do not fall away, so that you may be increased in your latter days.
4| Accept whatever is brought upon you, and in the changes of your humiliation be patient.
5| For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable people in the furnace of humiliation.
6| Trust him, and he will take your part; make your ways straight, and hope in him.
7| You who revere the Lord, keep waiting on his compassion, and do not turn aside, or you will stumble.
8| You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not fail.
9| You who fear the Lord, hope for good things, and for everlasting gladness and mercy.
10| Consider the ages past, and observe: who ever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or who remained steadfast in fear of him and was forsaken? Or who called upon him and was overlooked?
11| For the Lord is compassionate and merciful, and he forgives sins and saves in a time of affliction.
12| Woe to fainthearted souls and slack hands, and to the sinner who walks two paths at once.
13| Woe to the faint heart, for it does not trust; therefore it will not be sheltered.
14| Woe to you who have lost your endurance; what will you do when the Lord comes to call you to account?
15| Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words, and those who love him will keep his ways.
16| Those who fear the Lord will seek his good pleasure, and those who love him will be filled with the law.
17| Those who revere the Lord will make their hearts ready, and before him will humble their souls.
18| Let us throw ourselves upon the Lord's mercy rather than fall under human power; for as great as he is, so great also is his compassion.